The field of the present invention relates to optical resonators. In particular, optical resonators formed in planar optical waveguides with distributed optical structures (e.g., diffractive element sets) are disclosed herein.
One or more distributed optical structures (i.e., sets of diffractive elements) in a channel waveguide, an optical fiber, a slab waveguide, or another guided-wave optical structure may be used in a variety of devices for spectral filtering, laser frequency control, spectral multiplexing, optical sensing, or other functions. Two or more such diffractive element sets formed in a planar waveguide may define an optical resonator cavity, and optical resonators thus formed are disclosed herein.
Various embodiments, implementations, and adaptations of planar optical waveguides with diffractive element sets are disclosed in:
application Ser. No. 11/210,439 filed Aug. 23, 2005;
application Ser. No. 11/155,327 filed Jun. 16, 2005;
application Ser. No. 11/076,251 filed Mar. 8, 2005 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,062,128);
application Ser. No. 11/062,109 filed Feb. 17, 2005;
application Ser. No. 11/055,559 filed Feb. 9, 2005 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,123,794);
application Ser. No. 11/021,549 filed Dec. 23, 2004;
application Ser. No. 10/998,185 filed Nov. 26, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,993,223);
application Ser. No. 10/989,244 filed Nov. 15, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,961,491);
application Ser. No. 10/989,236 filed Nov. 15, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,965,716);
application Ser. No. 10/923,455 filed Aug. 21, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,054,517);
application Ser. No. 10/898,527 filed Jul. 22, 2004;
application Ser. No. 10/857,987 filed May 29, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,990,276);
application Ser. No. 10/842,790 filed May 11, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,987,911);
application Ser. No. 10/798,089 filed Mar. 10, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,823,115);
application Ser. No. 10/794,634 filed Mar. 5, 2004 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,985,656);
application Ser. No. 10/740,194 filed Dec. 17, 2003;
application Ser. No. 10/653,876 filed Sep. 2, 2003 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,829,417);
application Ser. No. 10/602,327 filed Jun. 23, 2003 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,859,318);
application Ser. No. 10/229,444 filed Aug. 27, 2002 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,678,429);
application Ser. No. 09/843,597 filed Apr. 26, 2001 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,965,464); and
application Ser. No. 09/811,081 filed Mar. 16, 2001 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,879,441).
Each of said applications and patents is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. For one or more of the references incorporated hereinabove, it may be the case that the devices, structures, embodiments, implementations, adaptations, procedures, or techniques disclosed therein may be employed, within the scope of the present disclosure or appended claims, for implementing an optical resonator in a planar waveguide.